Mount Shuksan/North Face

Mount Shuksan via the North Face is a Grade II-III ice climb.

DRIVING DIRECTIONS

Take I-5 to Bellingham, and take exit 155 for the Mount Baker Highway (SR 542). Follow SR 542 33.8 miles to Glacier and obtain permit at the Ranger Station. Continue 13 miles past Glacier to Nooksack River Bridge. Continue driving 5 miles to hairpin corner at 3,500 ft, two miles from Mount Baker Ski Area. Turn left at hairpin corner onto White Salmon Road (Forest Road 3075), marked, not at its junction with the Mount Baker Highway, but at its last switchback/junction). Follow to its end above White Salmon Creek. Heavy brush encroaches on both sides of the road for the last mile or two, leaving scratched vehicle sides.

APPROACH

A faint path with some flagging continues through road bed brush for several hundred yards before dropping down faintly from the roadbed with sporadic flagging and making its way over to a more open swath and dropping down to White Salmon Creek. Hike up brushy valley, then ascend eastward up timbered slopes to open areas along ridge crest. Good bivy spots are located at 5,500 ft where ridge meets North Face.

ASCENT ROUTE

From bivy, traverse left on hanging glacier above Price Lake and under upper hanging glacier perched above first rock barrier. After 500 ft, climb to right up firn and ice finger west of upper hanging glacier. Especially in early season, do not go far left onto North Face where avalanches frequently occur.

Continue steeply up North Face to shoulder northeast of summit pyramid. After midseason, route can be very broken and schrund at shoulder quite large. From top of shoulder, traverse ice plateau around east side of summit pyramid and finish climb by standard route to summit.